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Society

Things to do during a Gender Reveal Party: Eat, play games, visit w/friends, etc.. Oh yeah, forgot. Shoot up the place and injure nine people; including several children with one fatality.

Some people suck! Get a grip…Just sayin’.

After writing those words, I began to think about how we, as a society, got here.

I remember as a police officer during the mid-80s and early 90s, and a child would get shot as a result of gang violence. Whether it was getting caught in between two rival gangs, e.g., a drug deal that went bad, or retaliation for some perceived act of disrespect, etc.

Print, television and radio media would incessantly report on the story. Newspaper articles that occupied the front page. Television stations would interrupt regular programming and radio stations would broadcast the story numerous times an hour.

Society would “lose their minds.” Commenting about how horrible things were, and asking questions such as, What’s wrong with Society? What happened to respect? Why aren’t parents teaching their children to respect one another?

Move ahead to 2017. Now when an incident, such as the one above, takes place. There may be a story on page three of the newspaper. Television stations no longer interrupt their regular programming; however, they do include it in their nightly news programs, but I think it’s more for the ratings. Radio stations might report on it several times and then nothing. You can hear crickets.

Have we become desensitized to violence or do we not care any longer? I’m not sure, but in my opinion society, for the most part, is changing. It seems like we’re quick to blame the police, teachers, politicians (they’re part of the problem) for society’s demise, but society has some skin in the game.

Before anyone takes exception, please understand I realize some things do have to change; however, let’s be honest. Society needs some work, too. Look at road rage, school and workplace violence, immigration, parents abusing and killing their children, both political parties are crazy and shootings in cities such as Chicago, etc. The list goes on and on for what seems like forever.

It seems we no longer value life or anything else for that matter; unless, it has to do with us. Have we become more selfish?